The present invention relates to a navigation system, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a navigation system that includes a centrally-located server that provides language- and format-independent navigation-related information to one or more other servers, which in turn use the language- and format-independent navigation-related information to formulate specific navigation instructions which are provided to end users.
Navigation systems provide various useful features, such as calculating routes to desired destinations, providing guidance for following calculated routes, displaying maps, and so on. There are various computer architectures for navigation systems that deliver navigation-related features. In one type of architecture for a navigation system, end users use electronic devices to obtain navigation information from a remotely located server. The end users electronic devices may include general purpose devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computers (desktop and portable), as well as special purpose devices, such as specially designed navigation system units. These end users' devices are used to send requests for navigation-related information over a communications network to the remotely located server. The communications network may include the Internet or any other type of communications medium. When the remotely located server receives a request for navigation information from an end user's device, it uses navigation application software programs and geographic data contained in one or more databases to determine a response to the request and then sends the response to the end user over the communications medium. An example of this type of navigation system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,789, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
This type of navigation system architecture provides several advantages. One advantage relates to providing updated geographic data. There is a continuing need to update the geographic data used by a navigation system. For example, new streets are built, road construction closes roads, detours are established, new businesses open, posted speed limits change, new turn restrictions are established at intersections, streets are renamed, and so on. These kinds of changes can affect travel through a geographic region. Accordingly, the geographic data used by a navigation system should be updated on a regular basis in order to accurately reflect changes in the represented geographic features. A computer architecture in which end users obtain navigation-related services from a single central server affords an advantage with respect to the updating of the geographic data. With a computer architecture in which end users obtain navigation-related services from a central server, updates need to be applied only to the geographic database(s) associated with the central server.
Although there are advantages associated with a navigation system architecture in which end users obtain navigation services from a central server, there are considerations that need to be addressed. One consideration relates to providing navigation-related information in a variety of different languages. As an example, some end users may want navigation information in English, whereas other end users may want navigation information in French, Spanish, or another language. Another consideration relates to providing navigation-related information for a variety of formats. As an example, some end users may have systems that support graphical images of maps that illustrate the navigation-related information, whereas other end users may have systems that support only text instructions. It would be preferable that a navigation server support various different languages and various different types of end user systems. However, this can be difficult to accomplish because of the relatively large number of different types of end user systems, as well as the number of different languages. Thus, there is a need for an improvement that facilitates the provision of navigation-related information to different kinds of end user computing platforms and in different languages.